A QUESTION OF QUALITY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 75, 30 March 1899, Page 6

A QUESTION OF QUALITY.

([By-Mrs Effie A- Bowlands.)

CHAFTEPw VIII

The life at Summer Lodge was one i that was preeminently satisfactory to Bettine. She had slid into a place j so easily that after she had been there twenty-four hours she felt truly she might iave been there all her life, j The past faded pleasantly from her mind—the days of her life with her mother, the monotony of her school, and those after few weeks of sullen waiting and scheming and wrangling with her father—all passed from her as though such realities had been merely phantasies and dreams, me episode with Peter Callard alone remained clear and strongly outlined. It had not needed that unexpected meeting with him to bring such a memory more sharply to her. lne recollection of this man was something that haunted Bettine perpetually. Each day as she grew older in worldly understanding, each day did that brief experience force home a bitter influence upon her. She was young enough in years, but her heart hac! leen aged in the first instance by her mother's foolishness, and its freshness, its faith, and illusionspoor though these might have been— had withered utterly beneath the un fortunate knowledge of what baseness could lie in human nature that Cullard's treachery and brutal frankness had thrust upon her so suddenly. She had been very near to loving him (the mere thought of this now made ncr shudder); he had seemed so clever, so tender in his strength; he was so charming in his manners, wore such nice clothes, had been, m.fact, such an absolute contrast in every way to poor James Sylvester, that he had touched Bettine in a subtle yet an tmmistakable way, and she had fallen into a mood of dreaming of him, and realising her dreams with a hot blush just as any other schoolgirl might have done. But with, the awakening from this soft and most natural phaSet of feeling, all possibility of loyfe hifSUbeen swept away from her for ever^SSie was not constructed in the first instance to love, as most simple true-hearted women translate the meaning of love. Romance was something Bettine would never have understood, yet in the hands of a good man she might have been led into very different paths to those which she henceforward' determined to tread. As it was she was now an egotist .and a positivist of the most pronounced order. The strongest point of objection old. Lady Kingsberry had to find in the girl'was the calm, matter-of-fact -yvay in which she took all that now surrounded her. It was not that she desired Bettine to cringe and play a bumble part, but there was a happy medium in such matters which she considered Mr Baillie's niece might have adopted. In her shrewd way the Countess quickly saw, however, that Bettine's method was the enly one that would have effected as she had effected! Mch a triumph for herself over. Lady Alicia. To have played the role of a grateful charity dependent would have been to bring down upon the girl all Lady Alicia's most pronounced disagreeable manners. Had Nancy, for instance, been in Bettine's position, her life at Summer Lodge would have been one long mortification. But with Bettine's instalation of herself as Lady Alicia's equal, and her bold assumption of ease and unconcern, she had at the outset placed her adversary at a disadvantage. Lady Kingsberry did not discuss the girl with her daughter, and she fully understood why Lady Alicia seemed to be glad of this reticence on her part. The matter was one, in fact, that admitted of no discussion. Bettine had come to stay, and all the talking in the world would not dislodge her now; her home would be in her uncle's house just so long as she desired to remain there, and when the hour came that she would consider advantageous to her to leave this home, she would "'go with .no thought to anyone but herself. She was at least no hypocrite. Frankness was a virtue that Lady Kingsberry at once conceded to her. The old woman and the young sat and talked to one another frequently, although both were perfectly •well' acquainted with the fact that they were mutually distasteful to one another; but there was an element in ttheir two natures that drew them together even against themselves. The Countess loved being amused, and was not too particular as to how this amusement came to her; and Bettine was as clever and smart, in one sense, as Peter Callard himself. On the girl's side, she fully enjoyed old Lady Kingsberry's chatter; she found it educating, and she delighted in hearing all Ajhe gossip and scandal about the world into which she was about to enter. %et us talk about people, not things,' she would say, as she leaned her beautiful head cosily in a chair and watched" Lady Kingsberry's still jewelled hands move to and fro with a piece of knitting, or some such work. "Bettine herself detested needlework. 'I madesenough socks and stockings to last my lifetime when I was at the convent,' she said,, in her. frank way. ~.' , .1 i Edward Loftus and his family and position was one of the themes that came into frequent discussion between Bettine and the Countess, and it was not very long before'the girl knew all she wanted to know about the young man. 'And he lives at Clinton Cote with all his sisters and his mother, but why?' was one of her queries; 'if they are such a rich family, surely they could (afford to have separate establishments.' . '••Edward is a domesticated animal, my dear,' Lady Kingsberry had answered to this; 'he loves to be surrounded by his family. You see, they adore him in an audible fashion all

day long1, and this is pleasing- to. his j vanity. At Clinton Cote young Loftus \ is a hero of the greatest magnitude. ; The family, for instance, honestly be- j lieve,' the Countess added drily, as she i turned the heel of the pock she was. knitting, 'that darling Edward has actually been elected the Conservative member for the county purely on his own account, the brilliancy of Ms in- . tell'ectual qualities demanding foT him a front place in the politics of his country. He is a good soul all the same,' the old lady said, as Bettine had laughed softly, 'much too good to be made a fool of. Alicia should have thought of that when she took him in . hand to shape him for a paiiiamen- j tary career.' liettine had smiled at this. She un- i derstood the meaning that underlay | these words perfectly well, and substituted herself for Lady .Alicia in the ease quite simply. 'Oh!' she had answered, 'Mr Loftus ; will be quite capable of taking care of himself under any circumstances. He may not. be intellectual, but he seems to have plenty of stolid common sense. ! He will know better than to open his lips in the House.' This kind of fencing went on pretty frequently between the two; it was always maintained in a spirit of amiability, and it ended always in the same way, but it gave the Countess considerable satisfaction to let Bettine see that she knew all that was going on. She had no strong- desire to stand between Edward Loftus and any misfortune, the young man being of no very great account in her estimation; but somehow the idea that he was of account to Nancy, had come into Lady Kingsberry's head this visit, and it was for this reason alone that she viewed his growing infatuation for Bettine with so much disfavour. The Countess had, long ago, grasped the matrimonial scheme her daughter, had planned out in connection with Nancy and young Loftus, and though she had liad nothing to urge against such a marriage, she had not been too enthusiastic about it. The Countess had, as we know, a really soft spot in her heart for Nancy, and she would have been glad to see the girl shake herself free of her mother's thrall, and shape out a brighter future for herself than she would have had as Edward Loftus' wife. Clinton Cote lay too near by many a mile to Summer Lodge, the Countess opined, for much freedom of action where Nancy Avas concerned; it would be a very different state of affairs with Bettine- Sylvester, were she to reign instead of Nancy, as mistress of Edward Loftus' home. Lady Kingsberry felt almost a wave of compassion sweep through her as she pictured the future in store for 'darling Edward's' mother and sisters, did Miss Sylvester choose to instal herself sovereign of their hero's life. There would be a general exodus, and a speedy one, of the Loftus family from the old home once Bettine appeared on the scene. It might have seemed early days to some for Lady Kingsberry's thoughts to have flown so far ahead, but this astute old lady was one who could see through a brick wall as well as most, and in. the present ease there had been nothing opaque about Mr Loftus' most pronounced admiration for Bettine, or vague, at least to her, about the girl's attitude towards the young man s wealth. Though her acquaintance with Bettine was only a matter of a few weeks, she knew the nature of the girl thoroughly. Bettine had done her best to enlighten Lady Kingsberry on this point. 'Money, money, money! I must have money!' the girl said more than once to the Countess-; 'is there anything in the world more- hateful than poverty, Lady Kingsberry?' •It is pretty bad, certainly, the Countess agreed; 'and I ought to know something about it, for I have been poor all my life. I might be better off now, bu,t, of course, it comes too late,' she added' on one occasion, and she spoke with bitterness. 'I wish to heaven I had come across Peter Caliarda good thirty years ago!' Bettine had been standing by the window as this remark had been made; she stared out at the garden and lawn for a short moment, and ■then she turned to the Countess. 'Does it lie, then, in Mr Callaird's power to bring you money?' Lady Kingsberry nodded her head emphatically. 'He is making a fortune for himself as fast as he can,' she said, 'and if I only had some spare capital to play with, he would do as much for me. : As it is, he turns over my small investments in an antonishing fashion. Peter Callard, my dear,' the Countess added firmly, 'is going to be one of the men of the day. He will be a power, you mark my words.' (To be Continued.)